Potentially another one of California's self-inflicted wounds.
"Auerbach, the assessor, figures that satellites are no different from other movable personal property that he has authority to tax--like boats, construction equipment and ice skating costumes."
I were Hughes, I'd open a "Satellite Operations" subsidiary in a State that didn't do stuff like this. I doubt if Nevada does.
Open a small office, transfer the assets to that subsidiary and tell the Assessor to go pound sand.
It's been pretty much proven world-wide (I think the Swedes did the first study/experiment) that when total taxation approaches 40% of income, more effort is put into tax-avoidance than making more money.
It's why a lot of my buddies commute to work at LAX from another state. California tax policy/rates drive away those that can afford to leave.
So, instead of a decent amount of tax from those people, California tries to hose them and gets nothing as a result.
